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London Toy Shop Displaying REAL Penguins and Reindeer…Festive or Furious?

Yes, it’s true. There are plans for London’s largest toy shop (and one of the largest in the world), Hamleys, to have a pool installed where real penguins will be able to swim around for visitors to watch. The penguins and reindeer will form part of the shop’s Christmas promotion.

There has already been outrage from animal protection groups claiming that the promotion is against animal rights as the experience will be extremely stressful for the penguins and reindeer during their time in the shop .

Facebook already has a campaign to stop the use of live animals at Hamleys this December and there are bound to be more protesters jumping on the bandwagon as news spreads.

The penguin advert on the Hamleys website said “Take a trip to Hamleys after school on Monday to visit our real life Penguin Pool! To go alongside the penguins there is a planned reindeer show where Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen will feature… Yes, that’s all of Santa’s reindeer (Rudolf is busy!).

The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has ruled the promotion is not illegal as Hamleys have planned for the correct and careful treatment of each ‘guest’ during their stay.

What do you think? Is it all part of the festive fun and well worth a visit? Do you think it is taking the Christmas display idea too far? Is it against animal rights? Will you be going there for a peek or avoiding Hamleys for ever more?

I’m against the animal displays. I would think with the money that is spent for marketing and advertising these days, something else could be cleverly displayed, leavinig the defenseless animals out of the human Christmas shopping fiasco.